The following invention is intended to provide a lifeline which can quickly lower persons from a burning house or building through a window. Considering the major fires which have occurred in recent years, it is incomprehensible that no acceptable solution has been reached earlier regarding how a person in danger should be able to escape through the window of a burning building. A recent example is the last major hotel fire where several people could have been saved if they had been able to lower themselves by means of such a lifeline which could be thrown out of the window.
There are already recognized appliances with lifelines which are installed in a casing with a pulley and line, where the line is coiled around the line pulley. The line pulley is equipped with spring-loaded centrifugal weights with rotation dependent on the rotation speed, which are thrown out and directly or indirectly activate a braking appliance for the pulley line.
Such previously recognized appliances with lifelines have a complicated construction and are therefore expensive to manufacture. Thus they are less suitable--also for economic reasons--for installation in large quantities as escape equipment in buildings where a fire will probably never occur. Such appliances with lifelines are further designed to be installed so that they will always function in the same place for several decades. Particularly in built-up areas, and in areas with salt-laden sea air, corrosion can occur so that the spring-loaded centrifugal weights can rust solid. Such corrosion damage can prevent the centrifugal weights being thrown out or they may be thrown out at too fast a speed. The fall speed is then too high and such a lifeline can then be positively dangerous to use.
There is also a simple appliance comprising a pulley line and a lifeline which has a length of at least double the required height. The descent is controlled by the person using the line or by a helper, by pulling on the other end or portion of the line. Such a lifeline cannot, however, be used by injured or physically weak people without help, and it is therefore not a fully viable means of escape in the event of fire.
Taking into account the disadvantages of the earlier known safety appliances, the aim of the following invention is to produce a device with a lifeline which is cheap and thus can be installed in large numbers, can be used by one person even if that person is injured or physically weak, has a safe mechanism whose efficiency cannot be reduced by storage damage and which has a simple construction with few moving parts.